The Question of Consent
By DJ Clawson
A sequel to "A Bit of Advice"
Chapter 13 – Brotherly Love
The first thing to happen after the new year was the pulling of Darcy's stitches, a procedure he described as "not particularly pleasant" but it did not seem to bother him much. The only result was some minor bleeding to be bandaged, and then he was free to go as he pleased. Immediate plans were made for their return to Pemberley. While there would be much traveling between the two estates until the wedding, Mr. Bennet would stay with the Darcys and Mrs. Bennet and Kitty would aid Jane with her three children.
"Have you seen my son?" Darcy said as he burst into Bingley's study.
Bingley merely held up Geoffrey, who had climbed into his lap and decided to take his nap there. "I couldn't bring myself to disturb him, he appeared and was asleep so quickly."
"That's quite all right," Darcy took his son and passed him off to the exasperated Nurse. "Sorry to bother you."
"Hardly." How is the shoulder?"
"I've been told it looks worse than it is. Excuse me, Bingley." He went to leave, but Bingley stopped him.
"I have a favor to ask of you," he announced.
"Does it involve preventing a marriage?"
"No."
"Does it involve forwarding a marriage?"
"No."
"Am I, at any point, to be shot?"
"I daresay, no."
"I am still hesitant," Darcy said, leaning on the fireplace. "My favors seem to get me in a lot of trouble."
"They also got you a wife."
"So clever you are to point that out," Darcy admitted. "Fine, Bingley. What is it?"
"Doctor Maddox has expressed an interest in seeing Pemberley. If you would put him up until the wedding, I am sure he would be quickly lost in its libraries and be no trouble to you."
"Interesting, then, that he has not expressed this sentiment to me."
"Well, there is, uhm, the matter of ..." Bingley coughed. "He cannot stay at Kirkland, and I have no wish for him to return to Town." He added, "Caroline would go with him and the problem would not be solved."
Darcy smirked triumphantly. "So it is a problem."
"So I have been informed. By various ... uhm, servants."
"You are such a noble guardian of your sister's chastity. Your parents would undoubtedly be proud."
Bingley's face turned the color of his hair. "I can always rely on you to state the obvious, Darcy. Just take him to Pemberley!"
"If he wishes to go, he is a welcome guest. However, I will not be the one to drag him there."
And so, the train of Darcys, one Bennet, and one doctor set off for the great estate of Pemberley. And it was even done without Bingley getting out his shotgun.
Maddox was impressed at the sight of Pemberley; only his usual shyness hid some of it.
"If you're worried about being lost," Elizabeth assured him, "I still manage it on a regular basis, so there is no reason to be ashamed."
"And I've given up hope entirely," Mr. Bennet said.
Mr. Darcy was greeted most enthusiastically by his staff, even though he had been gone less than a month. A teary Mrs. Reynolds stopped short of actually embracing him. Only now that he could walk without a cane enabled him to maintain his dignity.
Bingley was correct in his assessment that the doctor as a most unobtrusive and pleasant guest. He spent many hours with Mr. Bennet in the library, sharing a knowledge of language and literature that gave Mr. and Mrs. Darcy their much-desired privacy.
"I knew a Maddox once," Mr. Bennet said. "Stewart Maddox. We were peers at Oxford."
"He was my father," the doctor said. "The Earl of Maddox was my great uncle. The estate and fortune was entailed to my older brother Brian, who lost it gambling."
"The ruin of many men," Mr. Bennet observed.
Bingley and his sister were constant dinner guests despite the weather, and Elizabeth was back and forth to see Jane, who was not quite ready to leave her twins. All in all, there was more than comings and goings than usual, and Darcy's only objection to the doctor's presence was that Maddox insisted that Darcy not yet return to fencing, and used his authority as a physician to continuously send home the private coach.
One night late in January, Bingley delivered a letter that had arrived at Kirkland, addressed to the doctor. Alone with Darcy in his study, Maddox tore it open. "It is from my brother." He took off his glasses and read it. "He is asking for money."
"Is this a regular custom of his?" Darcy inquired.
"Hardly. I haven't spoken to him in seven years. After he lost most of our fortune, he spent the remainder to pay for my doctor's license, and ran off to the Continent, presumably to escape creditors. I've not a heard a word of him since."
"How extraordinarily coincidental to recent events. How much is he asking for?"
"Twenty pounds." He closed the letter and replaced his glasses. "I have twenty pounds. I have more than twenty pounds."
"It is still a considerable sum," Darcy said, despite the fact that Maddox doubted it was a considerable sum to the Master of Pemberley.
"But not unreasonable. And he is my brother."
"So you are not at all suspicious?"
"Of course I am. But considering what he spent in the old days, it is rather small, and he says it is a fee for rent, now that he is newly returned to England. And he is my brother."
"So despite his ruining your entire fortune and social standing, you parted on good terms?"
Maddox looked over at Darcy and answered very defensively, "Our father died when I was but twelve. Brian paid for my extensive education and my doctor's license, which gave me a potential living. The latter he probably used loans for on credit he did not have. So while we did have a rather heated discussion about the family fortune, we did not say anything we could not take back and I wished him well on his escape."
Darcy responded, "You are a more generous man than I. While it's all too convenient on his part for my tastes, it is your money and you may keep your own counsel on what to do with it."
"And I must write him of the wedding if he hasn't heard. I am quite unsure of the arrangements, but perhaps there would be somewhere for him to stay in Derbyshire?"
"Of course. He is welcome at Pemberley." Darcy, however, was not particularly welcoming in his tone.
The general instinct to delay the wedding until the thaw was proven to be an excellent idea. Derbyshire endured what the aged Mrs. Reynolds assured them was one of the worst winters of she had ever seen, with, at times, even the roads between Pemberley and Kirkland impassable. The post stopped entirely for days at a time, and most of the occupants of Pemberley retreated from the long, drafty hallways to the smaller sitting rooms. Darcy dismissed all the servants but those necessary, and made sure to have the fires going strongly in all of the fireplaces in active use. Derbyshire was blanketed in white and to the minor vexation of his parents, Geoffrey Darcy's first word was not a name but the word "snow." He banged on the window, indicating that he wanted to play in it, or at least see what it was. Darcy immediately refused, but fortunately Elizabeth had a doctor there to assure him that letting his son handle some snow for a few minutes on the porch would do no harm. What he did touch, Geoffrey quickly consumed most of, which set off another chain of parental worries and another chain of assurances that snow was in fact, condensed water and harmless when it was clean. Only Darcy's stern look stopped Dr. Maddox from a long lecture about condensation and how the weather system worked.
The wedding preparations were continuing at Kirkland, or so Bingley assured them when the Bingleys visited, but on this night they were assumed to be canceling, because it had been snowing for almost a day and not even a courier could get through to inquire as to their attendance at dinner. It was late February, and the weather was sure to break soon, but at the moment, Father Winter was holding his own and despite all attempts at everything, most of Pemberley was freezing. The servants still on staff were dismissed to their quarters and the residents and guest of the house retreated after dinner to a single sitting room. Darcy sat in a chair by the fireplace and tended to it diligently. Mr. Bennet and his daughter were very happy in their books and multiple blankets. For once, Geoffrey was not permitted to run around on the cold floor (for he was now walking, if a bit unsteadily, and had occasion to fall), and stayed securely in his father's arms despite how much he struggled to escape them before falling asleep.
Georgiana, who was well-educated but not a bookworm like her sister, had found Dr. Maddox very pleasing to have around, because she quickly discovered a great interest in middle English texts, of which Pemberley had a small number of that were rarely perused, mainly because the spelling of words was almost entirely different and in some cases, so was the letter set.
"That cannot be the same word!" she insisted, staring at the very large bound text before both of them on the table. "It is spelled differently."
"The fourteenth century was not a time when England had officially spellings," the doctor explained patiently. "This was meant to be read aloud, and as we are often to pronounce words differently in different circumstances, so it is written differently."
Darcy spoke out of nowhere, "'The double sorrow of Troilus I tell, who was the son of King Priamus of Troy.'"
Everyone looked at him, but he seemed unphased by the attention.
"Troilus and Criseyde," Maddox said.
"Yes. I had to memorize the first ten stanzas for my literature exams," Darcy explained. "Though, during the oral section, I was allowed to read the text with our current pronunciation, if using the original structure of the words, which I do not properly recall now. Admittedly, it has been some time, and I am not accustomed to hearing it spoken aloud properly." He mused, "I once had to attend a reading of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight spoken entirely in the old accent, and readily confess that had I not read it ahead, I would not have understood a word."
"How bizarre," Elizabeth said. "That the language should change that much in four hundred years."
"In Chaucer's time, I do believe, the Parliament still used Norman French for administration," her father added. "If we're all going to trade facts. None of us are much for cards."
"I am," Georgiana said, "but brother will never play with me."
"You make me seem like a terrible brother," Darcy said. "You have not asked in years."
"Because I know you detest it! I would not ask that of you. Doctor, do you play?"
"Not well," Maddox said.
"Good," Darcy said. "Best to let your wife win. It gives her the perception that she is in the superior position." The knowing smirk he gave Elizabeth was the only thing that he knew kept her from getting up and smacking him. Doctor Maddox merely blushed, but further comment was interrupted by the doorbell.
"Good heavens," Mr. Bennet said. "In this weather?"
"And I have dismissed the doormen," Darcy said, and handed Geoffrey off to Elizabeth. "It seems I must tend to this myself."
Taking a candlestick and another coat, he left the warm room and walked down the empty halls of Pemberley. They were so cold that even his loyal dogs did not follow him. When he finally reached the massive double doors and unlocked them with his master key, he opened the door to a burst of even colder air and snowflakes. When he recovered, he saw a man before him not in a courier's uniform, but wearing a shabby coat and no hat at all, his face red from the cold, but standing there very pleasantly, as if his hair was not snow-covered and soaking wet. "I'm so sorry to disturb you. Is this Pemberley?"
"It is," Darcy said.
"Then I am not lost. I heard there are a great many fine manors in this part of the country. I would very wish to see the Master of Pemberley, if he might be disturbed."
"I am he," Darcy found himself saying. "And you are?"
"Hello, Mr. Darcy," the man said with a courteous and extended bow. "So pleased to make your acquaintance. I am Brian Maddox."
Darcy apologized for the lack of staff on account of the weather, which seemed to bother Mr. Maddox not in the least, and the Master of Pemberley found himself taking his own guest's coat and finding him a towel and a blanket for his hair after he shut the door. "I have sent most of the staff to their quarters," he explained as he led him down the long corridor to the sitting room, "to keep warm. How you made it here, you have no idea."
"This? This is a minor dusting," Mr. Maddox said, attempting to dry his hair, which was a frizzy mess. "You've obviously never wintered in Bulgaria."
"No, I cannot say I have."
"Thank you for letting me in. Obviously, I am here for my brother, who I assume by your lack of further questioning is here."
"You have assumed correctly," Darcy said, his voice carrying its normal levels of reservation, though he was not to be ungracious host. That would be insupportable. He finally reached the door that led to the warm room and realized he would have to announce his guest himself.
That did not come to be. He barely had properly stepped into the room when Mr. Maddox disposed of his blanket. "Danny!"
"Brian?" Whatever surprise was quickly overcome on the doctor's part, and he quickly put down the book and hugged his brother. Without foreknowledge of their history, one might assume they were the best of friends as well as brothers. "You had to make an entrance, didn't you?"
"Always." He bowed to the crowd, and Darcy introduced them in tern. "Very pleased to meet you all. I apologize my intrusion, but it was hard to calculate when I would be arriving, and all of the inns are closed."
Now that they were standing next to each other, the familial connection was obvious. Brian was shorter but older, and did not wear glasses, but they both had the same black hair that curled itself in clumps. The chief difference was that the doctor kept his bangs long and kept it trimmed more in the back, while his older brother took no effort to hide his face but just kept it long everywhere, so he looked a bit like he had a barely-contained mane. "I came as soon as I got your letter. And the rent, thank you."
"The post has been inconsistent up here," the doctor said. "At least, during the worst of the storms."
"Storms! Ah, to be an Englishmen again and consider this a terrible winter. Everyone in Town is all complaint. But I suppose it is relative."
"I assume you have been traveling some," Doctor Maddox said.
"Some! All right, I admit, I did not get as far as Russia, but otherwise, I've been about. Germany, Bulgaria, Romania ... by the way, the vampire stuff is nonsense. Or so I was led to believe while I was there."
"What vampire stuff?" Georgiana inquired.
"He is talking of an old legend," Elizabeth explained. "Monsters and all that. Very popular in fiction."
"Gory fiction," Darcy said to his sister. "Horrid stuff."
"He's trying to discourage her," Elizabeth said to her father.
"Well, it's certainly not proper like Chaucer," Mr. Bennet said in jest. "Well, Mr. Maddox, your return to England than was most fortuitous, because you are here in time for your brother's wedding."
"So it seems," Brian said, and gave his brother a tap on the arm. "Fate, almost."
"Yes," Darcy said coldly.
"Mr. Maddox," Elizabeth said in her hostess voice, "it is most wonderful to meet you, but I fear I must put my son to bed, and I much desire to hear all of the tales of your travels to the Continent. So perhaps you will save them for tomorrow. I will find someone to set you up with a room and you may stay in here as long as you wish, but I must retire."
"I completely understand," said Mr. Maddox. "I am sorry for my late appearance, again, Mrs. Darcy." He bowed, most of the rest of them took the hint to retire, leaving the brothers to catch up as the fire burned down.
When Elizabeth finally joined her husband in the bedroom, he was not in bed, but sitting by the fire in deep concentration. She let a hand stray in his direction as she passed and he kissed it. "Well, you can stay up, but I am at least getting under the blankets."
He grunted.
Elizabeth changed into her bedclothes, and took her place in the bed that was meant to be exclusively hers but that they always shared, where she crossed her arms and said, "Are you going to make me wait all night?"
"Oh." Suddenly his tone softened. Considerably. "I'm sorry." And he began to also remove the layers of wool of his own clothing.
"Perhaps I should have been more specific," she said. "I was talking about Mr. Maddox."
He huffed in disappointment. "You were?"
She bid him closer and kissed him. "First things first. If Mr. Maddox is to stay here, you must try not be a bit more civil."
"Civil? I was being perfectly civil. I was just being Mr. Darcy," he said. "Everyone knows I am still a gracious host, even if I completely lack any social skills."
Elizabeth laughed as he climbed into bed beside her. "I wouldn't say any. But I would say, knowing you very well – and remember, Mr. Maddox does not – that you were even more unsociable than you usually are around mixed company. In fact, I would say you were downright suspicious."
"And you are not?" he said, untying his boots and tossing them aside. "The doctor's long-lost brother, who ruined the family fortune and left him in destitution before fleeing creditors and apparently went all the way as far as Bulgaria to do so, suddenly reappears just before his little brother marries into fortune? There is nothing to consider in that?"
"I am not saying there isn't," she replied. "But that does mean you have to constantly give him a look like you suspect he's about to run off with the silverware."
"Perhaps that is what I'm thinking."
"I am not saying that your fears are completely unfounded," she said, "or even downright sensible. But he is our guest and we must give him the benefit of the doubt until Doctor Maddox, who knows him better than we ever shall, tells us otherwise."
"You are a very trusting person, Lizzy."
"I am merely a proper hostess. I am by no means trusting of Mr. Maddox. I will be most displeased if you turn your back on him. Though, if you must, perhaps he will hit you on the right and your scars will be symmetrical."
"I have a scar?"
"I suppose you can't see it. Well, it is very small, and I will be the only one who will ever see it beyond your manservant and Doctor Maddox. Or at least, I should be."
"You will be." He kissed her, and they collectively set their fears and concerns about Brian Maddox aside.
Next Chapter – Motherly Instinct